Restart
by Doctor McFly
Summary: Episode Six: As the time loop restarts Marty and the Doctor try to figure out how to break the cycle, destroy the robot, rescue the lost children and deal with River's sudden memory loss. TBC in Episode Seven: Return to the Future!
1. Hello sweetie?

(Welcome to my episodic crossover fic. This is episode six, and while you can start reading here, you might want to visit my profile to get the whole story with Episode One: Frozen in Time)

Back to the Doctor

Restart Part 1

Tuesday

July 9th

1811

As the robot was concentrating on the Doctor and River, he didn't notice Marty McFly and a little girl sneaking up behind him. Marty pushed the little girl away, hiding her behind a boulder, then grabbed a rock the size of a bowling ball off the ground.

"Subject acquired," came the robot's electronic voice.

"Not this time!" The Doctor yelled as he threw his rock and River opened fire, aiming for the robot's eyes. Marty kept low during the onslaught as, much to Marty's surprise, the robot flinched slightly and Marty realized with great relish that one of River's bullets had hit it right in the eye.

"Subject acquired," the robot regained its ground, taking a step forward and aiming its weapon once more.

"Time to get a new catchphrase!" Marty yelled at the great robot, jumping up from behind and bringing the heavy rock down on its shiny metal skull as hard as he could.

The robot stuttered a moment and both River and the Doctor took the opening to grab large rocks themselves and all three of them bashed the robot's head in unison.

A spark leapt from the robot's broken eye socket, and its remaining eye dimmed. The robot stopped moving.

"Is it dead?" Marty's breath was ragged.

"Don't be silly, you can't kill a robot," River brought her rock down on its head again for good measure. She wasn't certain three measly humans with rocks could stop a robot for good. It probably just needed to reboot.

The little girl popped her head out from her hiding place.

"Is it okay now Mr. Marty?" She asked in her quiet voice.

"Who's this?" The Doctor asked as the little girl ran out and wrapped her arms around Marty, looking at the two adults with uncertainty in her eyes.

"The sister, am I right?" River looked the girl over. There was no mistaking her resemblance to her brother, the same eyes, the same jaw-line.

Marty looked back at the robot. "We should probably get out of here."

"I agree," the Doctor said and started down the only hallway open to them.

Marty picked up the little girl, he turned on River's flashlight and handed it to the little girl so she could carry it. She had been so enamored by the electric torch that Marty couldn't keep it away from her.

"How did you find us?" River asked as they hurried down the hall, if that robot restarted and came after them nothing they did would be able to stop it again.

"By accident. She brought me down a pathway after I found her. I thought I'd use my spare time to get to know these caves a little better."

"How can you have spare time when we're working on a schedule?" River gave him a harsh look.

"What River meant to say is: Thank you Marty, we weren't sure what would happen if that thing froze us and appreciate you helping us escape."

"Yeah, well you're really going to thank me in a second," Marty smiled.

"Oh?" River's eyes softened at him.

"Tell them about what you showed me," Marty looked at the little girl.

"Up above, there was a white crack."

"A crack?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows.

"A crack of light, just floating in the air. Any thoughts?"

"Well I won't know anything about it until I see it for myself. How far is it?"

"Too far," River interrupted. "Any second now everything is going to restart."

"When it restarts, what will happen to her?" Marty looked at the little girl, feeling strangely protective of her. He didn't want her to be alone in the dark again. If he didn't let go of her, would she go back to the entrance with them?

"Well-" River began.

Marty blinked, and suddenly he was standing in the entrance, the Doctor by his side, River standing on the other side of the room, her back to them. His arms, empty, his pain, gone. It was like the last hour simply hadn't happened at all. Marty felt strange, like he had just woken up from a dream and gotten off a roller roaster at the same time. He felt sick.

Then River turned around, just as she had when they had entered the time loop the first time and smiled widely at them, her face positively beaming to see the Doctor standing before her.

"Hello sweetie," her voice was like honey.

Marty stared at her in confusion. It wasn't just the disorientation messing with his senses, there was something strange in River's eyes. She was wearing the exact same expression as when she had first seen them.

"You sure took your sweet time getting here," she continued, noticing nothing out of the ordinary herself.

"That's what you said last time," Marty narrowed his eyes.

"Hm, who's this?" River purred. "Not your usual carry-on luggage."

"Ha! That's what she said last time," Marty smiled and River's face dropped in confusion.

The Doctor's face was scrunched up in that familiar look of concentration as his mind raced. He looked hard at River.

"This complicates things."

"Something's wrong here," even River was catching on. "Has this happened before? Have you already been here?"

"You don't remember what we just went through?"

She looked uncertain. "I don't remember _you_."

"I thought our memories didn't get reset," Marty protested as he turned to the Doctor. "Why doesn't she remember us being here before?"

"Because we're the new variable. Us entering the loop has changed things. Our memories haven't been reset, but River's has because she's become part of an updated template."

"What are you trying to tell me? That if anyone else walks through the entrance our brains will get reset every time as well?"

"Well…" The Doctor looked back and forth between the two confused faced, shrugging in defeat. "Yes."

**To Be Continued…**

(It seems right that I'm returning from a hiatus with an episode called Restart. This break of mine wasn't planned, I hadn't meant to leave you guys on a cliffhanger for over a month and I do apologize. To make up for the hiatus, I give you: two complete episodes, a chapter uploaded once a day! That's right, folks: Two full weeks of glorious Back to the Doctor! I really enjoyed reading all the reviews while taking my break, it really helped me get back into the groove when I finally decided to sit down and start up again. Even more excitingly all the episodes together have gotten over 88 reviews! I'm really pleasantly surprised by the support I've gotten for this story, so thank you to all my fans who have given me reviews. There are too many of you to give thanks to everyone personally – which in itself is incredible – but I just want you guys to know that you make me want to work harder and make this the best story I can.)


	2. Grenade

Back to the Doctor

Restart Part 2

"Shit Doc, this is heavy."

"I'm sorry, but just what the hell is going on here?" River demanded.

"You've explained everything to us before, but clearly you've now become part of the time loop. There's no time to go everything again, we only have an hour."

She took this information in with a stoic nod, but both men could see she was clearly troubled by this news. "All right sweetie, so what next?"

"Let's go, there's no time to waste," he gave them both a grin, embracing this chance to do it all over again – right this time and stop the time loop. "Alons-y!"

"This way," River pointed down the right-hand tunnel, grabbing a torch as the three started running towards their destination.

"Yeah, I know," Marty ran next to her. "I also know where the crack is."

"Crack? What crack?" River turned to the Doctor for an explanation.

"The nature of this time loop might be different than I had originally theorized, but I can't know anything until Marty gets us there!"

She turned back to Marty.

"You found where the explosion took place?"

"While you guys were busy chasing robots."

"Well," she huffed, annoyed at the loss of power from losing her memory. She didn't like playing catch-up. "I'm glad you two seem to have a handle on things, but who are you?"

"Marty McFly, pleased to make your acquaintance again."

"Marty McFly?" She looked like she was searching her memory. "Oh right, the boy with the DeLorean."

"It's in the shop at the moment," that or scattered across the Hill Valley rail system, same difference.

"The Doctor's told me all about you. You're much cuter than I imagined. I'm starting to see why he took such a shining to you."

"He's jus trying to help me save my girlfriend."

"How noble," she looked back to the Doctor, the man she clearly felt had all the real answers. "How many loops have I missed?"

"We've only gone through one with you."

"Hm, that makes this my 11th then."

"If someone else entered that loop before we did though, you might have been in there a long time."

"Well, this isn't my first time loop, but let's hope it's my last."

"Be careful what you wish for."

They left the finely carved ruins behind and continued on in the natural cave system. Before they did anything, they were going to find the little boy. Marty was going to make sure brother and sister were reunited by the end of this.

"Help! Help!" A little voice cried out in the dark.

"There he is," River smiled. "I didn't find him until the second time I went through the loop."

"You two go and get him, leave the torch with me," Marty was quick to take charge.

River looked at the Doctor with a bemused expression on her face, then turned back to Marty and handed him her torch.

"Yes, sir."

"And River," Marty held out his free hand. "Your grenade."

"Hm," she wondered just how many of her gadgets he knew about. "I was saving that for an emergency."

"That robot shows up, we'll have an emergency."

River looked to the Doctor, who had already begun scaling down the wall towards the little boy. "Do what he says," he said with a kind voice. "He's gotten the both of us out of a tight situation before."

"All right," she pulled it out and handed it to him. "Be gentle."

River started climbing down after the Doctor, smiling at him all the way down.

"It's like we've done this together before."

"We have," they reached the little boy and the Doctor grabbed the boy under his arms, ready to lift him out like last time.

"I'm stuck," the little boy squirmed.

"Grab his foot," the Doctor ordered, but River was already reaching out to get the boy loose from the rocks.

"We need to get out of here," the boy was crying, he was thin, malnourished, with dark tanned skin and wide brown eyes, they could just make him out in the torchlight as Marty looked down at them from above. "I saw a fire and I can't find my sister."

"The explosion," River nodded.

"Don't you worry, little boy," he nodded at River. "Now."

They pulled him out and once again had to listen to his pained cries until he settled into the Doctor.

"We're going to get you out of here," he patted the boy on the back. "Hold on tight."

They started climbing back up. "What now?"

"The robot's in a series of caves beneath us. It might be prudent to stay quiet. If he can't see us, maybe not being able to hear us will allow us to devoid detection."

They reached the top once more and rejoined Marty.

"I'll take that grenade back now," River held out her hand.

"What, you don't trust me to have a weapon?" Marty held it at his side, grinning slightly.

"A grenade isn't a weapon," she reached out and snatched it away. "It's last resort in a cave."

She started walking away.

"Yeah I know," he rolled his eyes. "I saw what happened the last time you threw it."

"We have to go deeper into the mountain," the Doctor whispered and they all lowered their voices so only the sound of the boy's soft sobbing were louder than their voices.

"To those six tunnels?"

"Yeah, you were close too. We need to go into tunnel number four."

There was a sudden clanging noise behind them, then the scraping of something heavy being dragged across stone.

"Already?" River groaned in slight annoyance.

The three of them turned around and looked back into the black face of the cave until they saw two piercing red eyes.

The Doctor looked troubled – really troubled.

"We're making too much noise, or maybe taking too long," he looked down at the boy briefly.

"The one time I didn't run into that damn robot in this cave was when I didn't stop to save him."

Marty felt uneasy. Were they suggesting that the only way to avoid the robot was to avoid rescuing the boy? What if leaving him alone means he gets killed during the earthquake? If he dies and they fix the time loop, does that mean he stays dead? He couldn't let that happen and he knew the Doctor wouldn't either.

River Song took a step forward and pulled out her gun.

"Come on then," she glared at the robot, "let's finish this."

**To Be Continued…**

(Writing this episode was a lot trickier than I thought it would be. I was constantly going back and forth to grab dialogue, descriptions and topics they had discussed in order to get everything right, and try to repackage it in a way that wouldn't feel redundant. Hopefully you are enjoying it so far! As I was tirelessly working on this episode I received an interesting e-mail, a fellow FanFiction writer asking me permission to essentially make his own version of this story. I certainly wasn't the first person to have this crossover idea and I knew I wouldn't become the last, but I had never expected to become some sort of authority. So for those who had ever wanted to write a Doctor Who/Back to the Future, you have my blessing to go forth and multiply… as it were.)


	3. Blink

Back to the Doctor

Restart Part 3

Once again River's gun was useless as she aimed at the robot's chest. They barely left a dent and the robot continued advancing on them.

The Doctor roughly handed the little boy to Marty and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He turned his back on them and faced the robot. "Run."

"I'm not just going to abandon you!"

The robot raised its arm and fired at the group. They all dodged to the side as the blast hit the floor, sending shrapnel at them. Marty felt some of them hit him in the back, like a dozen little knives stabbing at him, and he heard River scream and the sound of her gun clattering to the ground.

The Doctor couldn't get close enough to disable to robot and River couldn't reach her gun without getting too close. Marty could see two options, to either run… or hold their ground and lose. If they ran, they would lose just the same.

River must have realized the same thing, because at that moment she decided it was time to reach for the last resort, took out her grenade, pulled the pin and threw it.

"You lectured me on using grenades – why do you keep throwing them!" Marty barely had time to scream before the grenade exploded and Marty felt like someone smashed his head between two boulders.

He dropped the boy, lost sight of him, and could feel someone pulling at his shirt, trying to drag him forward, but all he could hear was a high-pitched squealing in his ears and everything was black. Whoever was holding onto him lost his grip and Marty felt himself falling, and then there was a horrible weight on his right arm and he heard the loud snap of his bone breaking under the weight of the collapsing rocks.

Marty tried to struggle, but he was completely pinned down. He opened his mouth to scream, but he couldn't breath in, there was too much weight on his back, and just as he was about to panic he blinked, and everything was back to normal.

He stood in the entrance of the cave, staring at the back of River song. He stumbled, his body completely reeling from the sudden change and fell, but the Doctor quickly put out his hands and caught the teenager.

"Hello sweetie," River turned around with her smile, just the same as the last two times they had started the time loop. As she saw the Doctor steadying the still dizzy Marty, her face fell. "What… took you so long? Is he all right?"

Marty couldn't stop shaking, the pain was gone, it had essentially happened, but his brain was having a hard time accepting that. He had died, he had felt himself get crushed to death. How did someone forget something like that?

"I'm all right," Marty breathed, and felt more relief at feeling air go into his lungs than he could ever express. He took a step back from the Doctor, but had to put a hand on the wall to keep from bending over and vomiting.

"There's no time to explain everything a third time, River," the Doctor said quickly, stepping away from Marty and moving towards her.

"_Third_ time?"

"We understand the situation and now we need to move," he grabbed a torch off the wall and turned to Marty. "All right?"

Marty nodded and righted himself. He still felt dizzy, but at least felt in control of all his limbs.

"Fine, darling," River smiled and walked over to the Doctor. "You can explain everything on the way."

They took off running through the caves, the Doctor leading the way with the torch.

"Can I at least ask whom you are?" River gave Marty a once-over with her eyes.

"You certainly have every time we've met before," Marty smiled at the ridiculousness of introducing yourself to a person three times in less than two hours.

"Right…" Marty couldn't tell if River looked annoyed or just confused. "And why is it I can't remember you?

"The Doctor said us entering the loop changed the template, or something. Now every time we restart, so do you."

Once again River nodded without any sign of emotion, but Marty knew it had to be frustrating to be told you were missing hours worth of memories and that unless they stopped the time loop she would never create new memories again.

"My name's Marty," he would have held out his hand if they weren't running.

"Marty McFly?" She smiled. "Oh right, the boy with the DeLorean. You're not his usual carry-on luggage."

"You know what? That honestly makes less sense every time I hear it."

River frowned. "How many loops have I missed? Two?"

"This would be my third," and preferably final, he thought.

"And where are we going?"

"I found the crack – the source of the explosion, or whatever. You know, the thing we needed to find in order to get out of here."

"There's a little boy near here. He's trapped, we need to help him."

"No," the Doctor spoke with a stern and solemn voice.

"No?" Both River and Marty asked.

"Every time we rescue the boy the robot attacks. It must be near that area, possibly staking it out. Who knows, maybe it even set up the boy as bait."

"From what I've seen it's hardly a sophisticated thinking machine!" River narrowed her eyes.

"We can't risk it!"

"Now wait just a minute!" River reached out and grabbed the Doctor's arm, yanking him to a stop. He turned around and Marty looked on, still unable to fully grasp the importance of their relationship. The Doctor looked at her with pity, but when she looked at him her eyes became infinitely deep with emotion. "You would never suggest leaving some poor boy trapped and alone in a cave by himself?"

"I'm not," the Doctor stepped towards River, the fire of the torch between them, its heat filling the void separating them. "I will come back for him. I swear I will, but we've tried it this way before and it's never worked."

He turned around. "It's time to start thinking outside the box."

"Wow, you two have completely switched roles," Marty was thinking about how when the robot killed the boy the first time River had been the one trying to stop the Doctor from saving him. River had been thinking practically then, not mercilessly, and that was what was happening again.

The Doctor was putting aside his emotions in order to save them all.

"What are you talking about?" River asked.

"No time!" The Doctor took off again and the other two were quick to join him.

**To Be Continued…**

(At some point while writing the episode I thought: "Oh good, now I'll fill my running quota." People running, or things moving quickly, is a pretty big part of the new Doctor Who. I could never picture William Hartnell dashing about, but now it seems utterly crucial to the series, so I was very keen to have the Doctor and his companions running whenever possible. Of course, running in a cave does present some unique problems… Anyway, I mentioned on my Wordpress page that I would be going back to edit the first five episodes, and I was true to my word. I mostly just fixed up grammar/spelling/punctuation/etc. The only real change I made was in respect to Marty's clothes in Zombie in Z Minor. More on Marty and his dressing-up another day though… I find I have a bad habit of referring to the robot as "him." In case I didn't catch all those, I might as well mention that the robot is not a man, neither is he – it – alive.)


	4. A Plan of Attack

Back to the Doctor

Restart Part 4

When the three of them finally reached the six tunnels, Marty led them down the fourth from the left. It was lower than the others and they had to crouch down to get through it. As it grew more narrow Marty heard River questioning whether he really knew where he was going, but he ignored her he heard a little girl crying ahead of them.

It was closer than the last time Marty had come this way, and he realized she was in a different place.

They emerged reached the fork in the tunnel and there sat the little girl, crouched down and crying into her hands. She raised her head, shocked, at the sight of the torch and the three people emerging from the tunnel.

"Who-who are you?" She took a step back, slightly nervous.

"It's all right," River went up to the little girl and crouched down as well so they were face to face. "We're here to help."

The girl look a little uncertain.

"Give her your flashlight," Marty suggested. "She likes it."

River took out her flashlight and turned it on. Instantly the little girl's eyes lit up even brighter than the beam of light.

"You can carry it," River held the electric torch out, smiling kindly at the little girl, "if you want to come with us."

"We can help you get home, with your brother," the Doctor added, his mind still back in the dark cave with the little boy trapped there.

Finally the little girl tentatively reached out and grabbed the flashlight, hugging it to her chest, relieved to finally be out of the dark.

"Which way?" The Doctor asked.

"The left," Marty started down it, the others following behind, until finally they arrived at the thin sliver of white light hanging in the air.

"That was no what I expected," River said, walking around the crack, the little girl hanging onto her hand and following her around.

The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and began scanning the anomaly.

"So," Marty asked, "how the hell does white light create a time loop?"

"It doesn't. There's more to this line than you can see. It's a crack through space and time. Time is literally pouring out of the crack."

"I don't understand."

"River?" The Doctor eyed her, trying to measure her up. If she really did know him like she claimed she did, had he taught her these sorts of things?

"These caves are flooded with time, and to compensate the time outside has stopped."

"Well how the hell does that happen?" Marty narrowed his eyes.

"Think of time as water," the Doctor began to explain excitedly. "The only way for nature to ensure that time loops didn't start popping up all over the universe was for it to freeze itself and contain the time loop here – like raising a levee."

"So… does this mean you can get us out of here?"

The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair, scrunching up his face as he took a deep breath. "We have to break the levees."

"You want time to flood into the universe," River looked unsure.

"Yes, exactly."

"Whoa, Doc, how the hell is that supposed to help things?" The idea of the entire planet being trapped in a time loop just so they could get out of the caves didn't make a lot of sense to Marty, but the Doctor looked more and more excited as he continued.

"The universe was just reacting to an unusual circumstance when it tried to contain the time loop, and if we change things up the universe will compensate again. If we let time leak out at the rate it's going, the time loop will only grow larger, but if we can create a wave of time, a torrential flood of it the universe wouldn't be able to stop the spread and it would eventually equalize."

Marty blinked. "Um… so to stop time flooding the universe… we need to flood the universe with time?"

"Yes, exactly!"

River smiled. "How do we do this?"

"This crack was created by an explosion, it's extremely unstable. All we need to do is agitate it."

"Like, hit it?" Marty asked.

River pulled out her grenade and Marty felt sick again.

"No-no-no-no-no," his eyes were wide with worry. He did not want to experience being crushed to death again."

"What? We need a big bang, and this is all I have."

"We can control the explosion, we'll have to if we want a big enough effect on the crack," the Doctor nodded as he planned through everything in his head.

"I'm starting to think the grenade thing is a little hit and miss."

"Well, a grenade really is a last resort," River said thoughtfully.

"Yes, I _know_," Marty groaned.

"We need to try something, we can't let this time loop keep going," the Doctor explained.

"Obviously. I don't want to spend eternity here."

"You wouldn't. Like I said: this crack is extremely unstable, and the time loop is only straining it. The entire space/time continuum could collapse if we don't try to control the situation here."

"So we blow up an already unstable time leak, or whatever?"

"Sounds like a good plan," River smiled playfully at the Doctor.

"Fine, you guys clearly get the science of this situation. I'll leave all that to you, but what about the robot and the kids?" Marty looked at the little girl and thought about her brother, trapped in a hole, calling for help.

"We need to stop that thing from getting out and causing even more mayhem," River nodded.

"Well, I don't know if we need to worry about that, but I do like the idea of fighting that robot while we still have a restart button," the Doctor was speaking as fast as his mind was racing. "I'll go back for the boy, and draw the robot towards the earthquake. That way we can crush it underneath the cave itself."

"But won't you get trapped too?" Marty asked uncertainly.

"I remember where we were when the quake happened – you should too."

Marty thought about it a moment, and realized it was true. There was something very distinct about where and how the cave changed as it went deeper into the mountain. Even River had known to get past a certain point in order to be safe from the cave-in, but knowing where you had to be didn't help you actually get there.

"No," Marty said suddenly.

"No?" River and the Doctor both looked confused.

"Doc, you can't do it, we'll need you to be here to set off the explosion," he turned to River, "and next to him, you understand this stuff the best, so if he needs help he'll have someone to rely on."

"If he the Doctor doesn't make it through the earthquake, we just get to try it again – remember?"

"Yeah, but how many times? You said it yourself, Doc, this whole time loop is unstable and can't last forever. Sooner or later we're going to run out of restarts, and if that happens," Marty swallowed his pride, "I'm the only one who's expendable."

"No one's expendable Marty," the Doctor said quietly.

"Save it," Marty smiled. "Besides, me and that robot have unfinished business."

**To Be Continued…**

(There was a point in the last episode where I thought not naming the children would be a problem, but because I was travelling I didn't have the time or resources to figure out what would be realistic names for them. Figuring it wasn't worth the hassle, I thought I'd just find a way to name this in this episode… only I've gotten to the point where – thanks to the fact that they're the only little boy and girl here – you know who I'm talking about regardless of whether they have an actual name or not. That, and I'm still don't really have the time, or energy, to go searching for good names.)


	5. Countdown

Back to the Doctor

Restart Part 5

Marty was fairly certain this was the worst idea he had ever had – it was certainly up there with buying a sports almanac and nearly collapsing the universe as he knew it. Letting a robot chase you through an earthquake – while rescuing a little boy – still really sucked though.

He ran back towards the now familiar gap in the cave where the little boy was trapped, River's backup flashlight bouncing around the claustrophobic cave walls. He had already vowed that once he got out of this cave it would be a long time before anyone would be able to lead him back into one.

The Doctor and River were waiting by the six tunnels and once the earthquake was finished they would find him and – hopefully it wouldn't be necessary – dig him out. The plan was about as far from perfect as they could get, but at least they had a plan, and it literally would not be the death of him if it failed – this time anyway.

Marty finally reached the boy and took a moment to catch his breath as the small, scared voice beneath him called out for help. River had also given Marty her watch, which she had programmed with an alarm that would go off five minutes before the earthquake, and again when it was meant to start. He had been timing himself as he ran towards the boy, it had taken him nearly five minutes. There were now only eight left before the earthquake began.

"I'm coming," Marty breathed as he started climbing down. The footing was a lot trickier than River or the Doctor had made it look, but he managed to find his way down all the same.

"My foot is stuck," the boy pleaded.

"Yeah, I know," Marty looked at his ankle, trying to figure out the easiest way to pull him out without hurting him.

He quickly looked at the watch: Seven minutes

"I'm sorry if this hurts," Marty muttered, taking hold of the boy's leg. Without another person to help, he would have to twist the ankle out, and that would undoubtedly be painful, but there was no time to be gentle. He twisted and the boy screamed, grabbing Marty's arm either for comfort or trying to make him stop. Marty ignored him and kept twisting until finally the foot came free and the boy collapsed against him, crying so hard his shirt was soaked in seconds.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry," Marty picked him up and looked up the steep wall. "Hold on real tight, okay?"

He put the flashlight in his mouth and the little boy clung to his neck as Marty started climbing up.

Six minutes.

Marty was in more trouble that he was willing to admit. He could still make it to the safe area, but without the robot following him there would really be no point. What if the robot had moved on from its stakeout here? When he finally reached the top he took the flashlight out of his mouth and pointed down either cave passage.

"I want to go home," the little boy sobbed, his face still buried in his shirt as Marty held him. He hadn't taken into account that he would have to run while holding onto a child. How much would that slow him down?

Suddenly the five-minute alarm sounded. The boy went slightly stiff at the foreign noise and Marty looked around anxiously. He stood there, breathing in the cool cave air as time flowed past him. He felt like he could reach out and grab at the flood of time, but he stayed completely still, too nervous to call out and try to bring attention to himself, but desperate for the robot to appear all the same.

He had four minutes left.

"There's going to be some running, just hold onto me as tight as you can," he heard a clanging noise echo towards him. "I promise we'll go home after."

Marty backed away from the noise, taking a quick look back towards his exit to make sure it hadn't been blocked off, and when he looked back down the cave passage leading towards the entrance, he saw two red dots approaching from the darkness.

The plan seemed stupider and stupider with every loud clanging step the robot took towards them. The little boy turned his head towards the robot and his eyes went wide with fear.

"Martin McFly," the robot took another step forward. "Prime subject acquired."

Marty cocked his head slightly. "What did you call me?"

Three minutes.

"RUN!" The little boy screamed, digging his fingers into Marty's shoulders so quickly it made Marty jump, and then there was no more time to think – he ran.

There was a bright light and a clatter of rocks as the robot fired at where he had just been standing.

Marty lost whatever train of thought he had had as he ran through the cave, trying to hold onto the flashlight and the boy as he bounced around in Marty's arms, screaming as loud as he could as he watched something twice his height and made of metal run after them with glowing red eyes.

The robot held its arm out, its built-in weapon glowing at its wrist, and a second later there was another burst of light against the rocks near Marty. The cave weaved just enough that they weren't running in a straight line and the robot's aim couldn't be exact.

Marty tried checking his watch, but nearly lost his footing and a part of him didn't care about when the earthquake was coming and whether or not he was moving too fast. He didn't want to relieve that moment of being crushed to death. Just the memory of the pain flooding his body was enough to make him run faster, though the robot shooting at him from behind was a worthy incentive.

As he ran he did start to notice the cave begin to twist in its familiar way and he realized he was getting close to the edge of the affected area and the rational part of his brain made him slow down slightly. Even the robot had to slow down a little, he couldn't take right-angle turns very well apparently, because at one point he was certain he heard the robot lose its grip on the cave floor and fall – but he didn't dare turn his head to check.

Then, there was silence behind him and Marty skidded to a halt, nearly crashing into the cave wall as he quickly swung around to look back.

The robot stood there, just inside the same bend as him, its head looking around apprehensively. Was the robot conscious of thought? Did it suspect some trap lying in wait?

Marty quickly glanced down at the watch. It didn't matter if the robot thought or not. The alarm went off, and the ground began to shake.

Both Marty and the robot started running again, the cave now cracking and opening around them as rocks fell from the ceiling. He still wasn't out of danger, and Marty ran with everything left, dodging boulders the size of his head as he weaved through the cave.

Then the ceiling seemed to come down right in front of Marty and he had to jump back, only to collide with a wall of rock behind him, and with a sudden sick feeling to his stomach, Marty realized he was trapped.

Then the cave collapsed all around him.

**To Be Continued…**

(Keeping track of time, or having a countdown, is a very strange thing to do in literature. Everybody reads at a different time, so you find yourself contemplating what best artistically represents a minute, and then you just kinda shrug and realize its all relative anyway. I mentioned before that in my poll, no one picked River as someone they wanted to see in this Fic, but for some reason the top searches I get for my Wordpress account are "River Song FanFiction" and other variations. So, I guess she's a lot more popular than my silly poll led me to believe.)


	6. Alone in the Dark

Back to the Doctor

Restart Part 6

Marty was trapped in the dark and he screamed as he tried to free himself from between two large boulders. For a brief terrifying moment he couldn't breath and thought he was about to feel the pain of being crushed to death all over again, but the longer he struggled the more he realized the boulders had stopped falling and although he was stuck, they weren't crushing him.

His rational mind started taking over, telling him to take a deep breath and calm down, feel his surroundings.

At first he didn't think he'd be able to free himself, but them he realized there was an opening underneath himself, and if he twisted to the right-

Marty felt the top half of his body fall forward into an opening and he pulled his legs out until he was completely free and in a small opening in the fallen rocks.

The idea that he might run out of air and die anyway occurred to him, and he felt helpless. What was he supposed to do? Just sit around and wait? Wait to die? Wait for rescue? Wait for the time loop to restart? He was starting to panic again .He didn't want to wait, he didn't want to be alone in the dark, unsure of what was happening with the rest of the world.

Was the rest of the world even out there anymore?

He suddenly remember the phone the Doctor had given him. He could feel it in his pocket. He didn't have to be alone, not really…

Marty pulled it out and pushed the button on the face of the phone, but nothing happened. He nearly started screaming again, but took a deep breath and found a button on the top. He tried pushing it, and when that didn't work he held it down in the hopes of rebooting the phone.

"Work!" He wanted to smash the phone against the rock. "You have to work! I can't be all alone in this place! You can't just burry me alive and forget about me! I'm a part of this world god dammit!"

The face of the phone suddenly came on. Marty sighed in relief and swiped his finger across the screen and locating the keyboard so he could dial Jennifer's number. There was no one else in the world he wanted to speak to more. He put the phone to his ear, listening to it ring, until finally there was a click and Marty heard Jennifer's voice on the other end.

"Hello?" The voice sounded distant, but Marty didn't care, the sound of her voice nearly made him want to cry.

"Hey Jennifer."

"Marty? Where are you calling from? You sound like you're in a hole."

"Yeah, well," Marty reached out with his free hand, feeling the cold boulders surrounding him. "That's not important."

"What's up? I'm just doing my homework, can you believe my teacher sprung that chem test on us for tomorrow?"

"That sucks… can't imagine anything that could be worse."

"Don't tease me Marty."

Marty smiled. He could picture her lying on her bed, her books strewn out on the covers, twiddling the phone-cord between her long fingers. He missed those fingers, but now her hands were frozen, unable to grasp onto anything. He would have given anything in the world to be lying on that bed with her, just so he could reach out and intertwine their fingers together.

"I'm not… I'm sorry. I just wanted to hear your voice."

She laughed and even from the other end of the line it was a clear, beautiful noise that cleared his head. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he lied, there was no point in confusing her. Jennifer had seen him that day at school and would see him in class tomorrow – even if he was trapped in this time loop for eternity. As far as Jennifer was concerned, he was safe and sound at home. "I should probably let you get back to your homework."

"You don't have to, I just have to keep quiet so my dad doesn't hear me on the phone."

"No," he started feeling around the rocks more, he was calm enough now to think rationally about finding a way out of there. River or the Doctor – if they were out there – wouldn't know where to fin him. He needed to get to them. "I don't want to get you into trouble. I just… I'm all right now."

"You're so weird Marty," Jennifer giggled.

"You have no idea."

"I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah Jennifer. I'll see you then."

The phone clicked on the other end and the line went dead. Marty was suddenly alone in the dark again, but his mind wasn't screaming anymore. He used the phone as a makeshift flashlight, trying to find weak cracks in the rocks – instead he found the boy.

He was completely still, lying on his back in the middle of the opening. There was blood on his forehead and a generous amount of it pooled beneath his head, but Marty could see his tiny chest rising and falling with the rhythm of his breathing.

Marty was afraid of shaking him, in case his neck was broken, so slapped his hand against the ground near his ear in an attempt to wake him up. He didn't stir and Marty couldn't help but worry that he had a serious head injury. Still, there was nothing he could do for the boy while they were both trapped under rocks.

The space was a lot higher than he had first thought and Marty realized he could stand up and search for an opening up top. The rocks were smaller up there, and sure enough he eventually found one that was loose and he quickly started pushing it out.

"Un…" the little boy stirred and Marty breathed a sigh of relief. He crouched down next to the boy, who fluttered his eyelids and looked up at Marty. "Where… are we?" His voice was weak and trembled slightly.

"We're in the cave, but don't worry. Just stay still. Where does it hurt?"

"Everywhere," he moaned.

"Anything more specific?"

The boy suddenly sat up, turned to his side, and vomited.

"Okay… that's probably not good," Marty patted the kid on his back as he settled back down. "Just, sit – lie – still. I'm getting us out of here."

He stood up and went back to his loose rock.

"We have to find my sister," the boy started talking, and while his voice still sounded weak, it seemed clearer, as though vomiting had somehow helped him. "We came here together, but she doesn't know the caves as good as me. She's probably lost."

"Your sister is with my friends," Marty gave a final shove to the rock and it fell free, tumbling down a pile of rocks on the other side. The opening was still too small for the boy to crawl out of, but some of the rocks around the hole were loose enough for him to start digging out. "You're both going to be fine."

The little boy closed his eyes and smiled. "Did you find the family?"

Marty turned to the boy. He could remember River having mentioned that the two kids had been following some strange family into the caves.

"We're, uh, still looking for them. What did they look like?"

The boy shrugged. "There was a mom and a dad, and two kids – a little older than me. I thought maybe we could play together, but then I wanted to know where they were going… but then there was an explosion and we both ran off and I lost her… my sister."

"What did the dad look like?"

"He was real tall… and he had big bushy white hair like an old man," the boy laughed a little, but then a pained look crossed his face and he settled down again.

Could it be the Browns? This place had been on the letter, and the robot might not have been lying in wait for them, it might have come here to get Doc Brown. Maybe the explosion had been to destroy or trap the robot, only maybe the Doc hadn't been able to predict what was going to happen and instead of killing the robot, started this whole time loop. Doc Brown had somehow managed to cut a hole in space and leak time into this cave.

Three rocks came loose at once and tumbled down. The hole Marty stood in suddenly began to shake and Marty ducked down to cover the boy while a small landslide took place.

"Marty!"

Marty grinned at the sound of the Doctor's voice. The rocks settled down and Marty stood up to look out the hole, now large enough for even him to crawl through, and saw the Doctor and River walking towards him.

"Way to leave me hanging, Doc!" Marty smile as the Doctor reached a hand inside to help him up.

"The kid's hurt," Marty picked up the boy and handed him through the hole to the Doctor.

"I've got him," the Doctor grabbed him and passed him to River, who stood with the little girl. The second the brother and sister saw each other they both started grinning, reaching out for each other.

"I thought you were lost!" The little boy said.

"I thought I'd never see you again!" The little girl started sobbing slightly.

"The robot's long gone, let's blow our way the hell out of here," The Doctor pulled Marty through the hole and helped him get steady footing on the other side.

"Well," the Doctor looked towards another pile of rocks. "I wouldn't say _long_ gone."

Marty turned his head to see what the Doctor was staring at and there, crushed beneath the pile of rocks, was the robot's lifeless face, staring at him with hollow eye sockets.

**To Be Continued…**

(I know I've talked about this before, but I really like bringing Jennifer into this fic. There are essentially three Jennifer's in this fic now, Daisy (being her doppelganger), Jennifer-on-the-phone, and Jennifer-frozen-in-time. I wouldn't mind throwing in a couple more Jennifers just to muddy the waters, lol. Writing this episode has been a different experience. Every other episode I've written in a fairly linear manner, but here I kept switching back and forth between the chapters whenever I would get an idea for a scene – not to mention I would switch back and forth between this episode and the next. As a result I think the outline for this episode has changed more drastically than any episode before it – and if you're curious about what exactly changed, then I'll post a little blurb on my Wordpress account about it. Either way, I really proud of this episode. I was a little worried because I wasn't all that happy with the last episode, because I had been so rushed writing it, and I was worried this episode would really suffer as a consequence; but I think I did all right.)


	7. Goodbye Sweetie

Back to the Doctor

Restart Part 7

A spark came from the pile of rocks and the four people turned to look at the robot.

"Take care of your brother," the Doctor said to the little girl, patting her shoulder. "We'll go take care of that."

The little girl nodded, not wanting to go anywhere near the metal monstrosity, and scampered over to her brother's side.

"Is it broken?" Marty wanted to stick out his foot and kick the robot's head, but he was terrified it would suddenly come to life and grab him.

"Let's find out," the Doctor crouched down, not even slightly apprehensive and getting close enough to scan it with his sonic screwdriver.

The robot eyes slowly turned on, creating a red glow on all of their faces.

"Get away from it!" Marty warned

"We should try and get some information out of it," River said calmly.

"We already tried that, it didn't tell us anything useful."

"Ah, yes," the Doctor grinned, "but I've learned a bit more about these robots since the last time I tried questioning one."

"T-time trave-veller de-de-detected," the robot said in a stuttered voice, like a scratched record.

"That's enough of that," the Doctor scanned the robot one more time, it stuttered a moment, then went silent, but its red eyes still glared at them.

"What do you want with us?" River stood over the robot, not wanting to get down to the same level.

"Mission directive: detect time travellers. Acquire subject. Harvest time."

"Yes, we know that part," the Doctor sighed. "Where do you come from? What is your origin?"

"Origin of manufacture California, United States of America."

Marty was a little surprised. A part of him couldn't believe these things came from the same planet as him – let alone the same state. What were these things? Terminators sent back in time to take out John Connor or whatever?

"More specific. Where is the factory?"

"42 Gale Drive, Hill Valley California, 95420."

"Well… that's _quite_ specific," River muttered.

The Doctor wanted to say that it was too specific, that it sounded like the robot was meant to lead them to this place – to a trap – but Marty cut them all off.

"Hill Valley! My Hill Valley! A robot hunting time travellers just happened to be built in the same town I was born and raised in?" Marty wasn't just simply in disbelief about the coincidence, there was something bigger nagging in Marty's mind, something he normally would have been able to piece together, but the stress of everything that had happened so far was blocking him from realizing the most obvious conclusion.

The Doctor looked troubled too. "Date of manufacture?"

"Morton Robotics founded 2015 C.E."

"C.E?" Marty narrowed his eyes. "When the hell is that?"

"It means common era," River rolled her eyes as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"As in 2015 A.D," the Doctor clarified.

"2015?" The year he, Jennifer and Doc Brown had all travelled too. "Wait a minute-"

"But when were you manufactured? How far back into the past were you sent? Who really built you? Don't give me some company name, I want to know the name of the man who drew your design blueprint!"

"Error. Unauthorized data. Cannot access. Mission directive: detect time travellers. Acquire subject. Harvest time."

"Yes we know that part!" The three of them yelled in unison.

"We're wasting our time with this," River crossed her arms in annoyance. "Now we're just wasting our time."

_Time_, Marty shuddered. There was no way he was going through this entire loop again.

"You're right. If we're going to find answers now, we'll find them at this Morton Robotics Company," the Doctor stood up and straightened out his jacket, turning to the others.

"What should we do with the robot?"

"Nothing. It's living off backup power cells now, those will probably die in half an hour, and it doesn't have any motor function, so as far as I can tell we're safe."

"Why am I not reassured?" Marty looked at the robot uncertainly.

"We're running out of time, we need to take care of this time loop – now," River practically ordered.

Marty walked over to the children and the boy reached out for Marty, so he leaned down and picked him up. River took the little girl and with a nod from the Doctor they ran off down the cave, back towards the crack – hopefully for the last time.

The children had calmed down and didn't feel nearly as frightened as before.

"Hey Doc," Marty remembered the conversation he had had with the little boy while they had been trapped. "I'm pretty sure – somehow – Doc Brown made this time loop. Accidentally, but still…"

The Doctor nodded. "That would make sense. A time machine careening out of control could have made that crack."

"Out of control? Do you think they're all right?"

The Doctor looked grave, but kept running. "I'm sorry, but there's no way to know right now."

They returned to the rack, River looking nervously at her watch. "How much time do you need?"

"Let me worry about time," said the Time Lord, holding his hand out to River, "you worry about supplying the explosives."

River handed him her grenade. "This won't be powerful enough. It's only a concussive grenade."

"Powerful enough to kill me in a cave-in," Marty said bitterly.

The Doctor fished some gadgets and wires out of his pockets, hooking them up to the grenade and scanning them with his sonic screwdriver.

"It just needs a little… oomph."

"Need I remind everyone that explosions in caves tend to be… bad?" Marty was beginning to feel slightly frantic. He trusted the Doctor, but he didn't see how they were going to get out of this situation unscathed.

The Doctor stood up and looked at Marty, smiling down at the young teenager as he put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I'm going to save us – all of us."

"Well… how?" River looked at him.

"I'm going to open the crack," he held his hand up as River started protesting what a bad idea that would be, "and throw this in. The massive amount of time in there will soak up the excess blast. We won't feel a thing, except time passing by – something you feel normally."

"This sounds like the kind of thing that can really go wrong… doesn't it?" Marty looked at River uncertainly, and she only managed to nod as the Doctor reached towards the crack.

The second his finger touched it, the crack began to react, as though it were recognizing a Time Lord in its presence.

Marty felt a rush of wind suddenly coming out of the crack and had to lean forward in order not to lose his footing. The children screamed as the crack began to open, the bright white light enveloping everything around it.

There, before the gap in time, stood the Doctor. The winds of time swirled around him violently, as he fought against the stream to push the enhanced grenade into the opening. He used both hands, and when it was far enough inside, Marty saw the flick of his wrist as he pulled the pin and suddenly the white light overwhelmed him and he closed his eyes.

When he opened them he was standing in the entrance, the Doctor at his side and River standing before them, her back to them. Marty opened his mouth to groan when he felt a tiny hand reach up and grab his own.

He looked down, and the little boy smiled up at him.

"Can we go home now?"

OOO

The five of them walked up the stone steps and into the fresh air. Marty took a deep breath as he stared up at the grey sky and the two children began laughing.

"Can you find your way home from here?" Marty asked them.

"You bet!" The little boy grinned, showing off his gapped teeth.

"And maybe in the future don't follow strange people into scary caves?" The Doctor smiled as the two of them waved and began running back to their families. They would probably never really know what had happened to them today, but all that mattered was that they were safe now.

"I think this is where our paths split," River said softly.

"But," Marty looked around. "We're in the middle of nowhere. We can't just abandon you here."

"Abandon me?" River laughed. "I'm leaving the way I came, with my own ship."

"You're in danger though. Those robots are still out there and I don't think they're going to stop until they've located every last time traveller," the Doctor looked at her with concern.

"Oh don't be so melodramatic," River took a step forward and put her hand on the Doctor's face, a sadness passing through her eyes. She looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped herself and kissed the Doctor gently on the cheek. "I'll be fine, so long as I know you're out there."

She turned to Marty and smiled at him.

"And you," she purred.

"Yeah, it was nice meeting you-" She grabbed Marty face and pulled him close, kissing him right on the lips. He was too stunned to move for a second, but then his face felt warm from embarrassment and he quickly pulled away, wiping his mouth with his sleeve as River softly laughed.

"Hey, I'm spoken for," Marty mumbled.

River shot a sideways glance at the Doctor. "So am I," she grinned. "Goodbye sweetie."

The Doctor paused, looking at her sadly, finally able to say what he hadn't had a chance to when River had died. "Goodbye, River Song."

With another wide smile she turned and walked away, disappearing behind the ruins. Marty and the Doctor watched on a moment longer, as though she might turn around and decide to join them, but she was gone for good and finally they went into the TARDIS and closed he door on Machu Picchu.

The second they were alone the Doctor ran towards the consol, his familiar joviality back, but Marty remained morose, slowly walking towards the centre of the TARDIS, his eyes staring in Jennifer's direction.

"Next stop: Hill Valley! I guess I'm going to get you home a little sooner than we thought – though probably a bit later than you thought, 30 years later actually."

"Slow down Doc."

The Doctor turned around. "You heard the robot, some company is being founded in your hometown and eventually it's going to lead to a lot of problems – for both of us. We can potentially stop everything that's happened from happening before it's even happened."

Marty's head swam for a second.

"You really think that's possible?"

"Well," the Doctor shrugged with a grin. "We're only going to find out if we try."

"Then," Marty smiled in relief. "Then I wouldn't have to waste my whole life travelling with you, waiting for Jennifer to come back to me."

"Waste? Steady on."

Marty stepped up to the consol. "I'm just kidding Doc. Despite everything that's happened… I'm not entirely sorry it did happen. You undoubtedly – and terrifyingly so – make life more interesting."

**To Be Continued in Episode Seven: Return to the Future**

(I find I can't be quite so loose with my metaphors in this fic. This line, for example: "like a scratched record" was "like a skipping CD" when I first wrote it. While Marty might know what a CD is, it's certainly not something he would be thinking about, so I had to change it. Same thing goes with idioms, I'm always stopping to wonder if anyone would say certain words in the 80s. To say the least, I spend more time agonizing over what Marty might say, think and perceive than any other character I've ever written – and I'm including my own writing here, not just FanFiction. Anyway, here's a fun fact: I did not make up a postal code for Hill Valley, I actually did a little research and – surprise, surprise – in BttF II there actually is a code given at one point. So that's a fun little fact about an imaginary town. Well, see you tomorrow for the exciting trip back to the future!)


End file.
